This invention is directed to compounds of formula I described herein, to a pharmaceutical composition comprising such compounds, and to methods of treatment of disorders or conditions that may be treated by antagonizing histamine-3 (H3) receptors using such compounds. The histamine-3 (H3) receptor antagonists of the invention are useful for treating anxiety disorders, including, for example, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, PTSD, and social anxiety disorder; mood adjustment disorders, including depressed mood, mixed anxiety and depressed mood, disturbance of conduct, and mixed disturbance of conduct and depressed mood; age-associated learning and mental disorders, including Alzheimer's disease; attention adjustment disorders, such as attention-deficit disorders, or other cognitive disorders due to general medical conditions; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; psychotic disorders including schizoaffective disorders and schizophrenia; sleep disorders, including narcolepsy and enuresis; obesity; dizziness, epilepsy, and motion sickness. The H3 receptor antagonists of the invention are also useful for treating, for example, allergy, allergy-induced airway (e.g., upper airway) responses, congestion (e.g., nasal congestion), hypotension, cardiovascular disease, diseases of the GI tract, hyper and hypo motility and acidic secretion of the gastrointestinal tract, sleeping disorders (e.g., hypersomnia, somnolence, and narcolepsy), disturbances of the central nervous system, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), hypo and hyperactivity of the central nervous system (for example, agitation and depression), and other CNS disorders (such as schizophrenia and migraine).
Histamine is a well-known mediator in hypersensitive reactions (e.g. allergies, hay fever, and asthma) that are commonly treated with antagonists of histamine or “antihistamines.” It has also been established that histamine receptors exist in at least two distinct types, referred to as H1 and H2 receptors.
A third histamine receptor (H3 receptor) is believed to play a role in neurotransmission in the central nervous system, where the H3 receptor is thought to be disposed presynaptically on histaminergic nerve endings (Nature, 302, S32-837 (1983)). The existence of the H3 receptor has been confirmed by the development of selective H3 receptor agonists and antagonists (Nature, 327, 117-123 (1987)) and has subsequently been shown to regulate the release of the neurotransmitters in both the central nervous system and peripheral organs, particularly the lungs, cardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract.
A number of diseases or conditions may be treated with histamine-3 receptor ligands wherein the H3 ligand may be an antagonist, agonist or partial agonist, see: (Imamura et al., Circ. Res., (1996) 78, 475-481); (Imamura et. al., Circ. Res., (1996) 78, 863-869); (Lin et al., Brain Res., (1990) 523, 325-330); (Monti et al., Neuropsychopharmacology (1996) 15, 31 35); (Sakai, et al., Life Sci. (1991) 48, 2397-2404); (Mazurkiewiez-Kwilecki and Nsonwah, Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. (1989) 67, 75-78); (Panula, P. et al., Neuroscience (1998) 44, 465-481); (Wada et al., Trends in Neuroscience (1991) 14,415); (Monti et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1991) 205, 283); (Mazurkiewicz-Kwilecki and Nsonwah, Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. (1989) 67, 75-78); (Haas et al., Behav. Brain Res. (1995) 66, 41-44); (De Almeida and Izquierdo, Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. (1986) 283, 193-198); (Kamei et al., Psychopharmacology (1990) 102, 312-318); (Kamei and Sakata, Japan. J. Pharmacol. (1991) 57, 437-482); (Schwartz et al., Psychopharmacology; The fourth Generation of Progress, Bloom and Kupfer (eds.), Raven Press, New York, (1995) 3 97); (Shaywitz et al., Psychopharmacology (1984) 82, 73-77); (Dumery and Blozovski, Exp. Brain Res. (1987) 67, 61-69); (Tedford et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. (1995) 275, 598-604); (Tedford et al., Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. (1996) 22, 22); (Yokoyama et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1993) 234, 129); (Yokoyama and linuma, CNS Drugs (1996) 5, 321); (Onodera et al., Prog. Neurobiol. (1994) 42, 685); (Leurs and Timmerman, Prog. Drug Res. (1992) 39,127); (The Histamine H3 Receptor, Leurs and Timmerman (ed.), Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1998); (Leurs et al., Trends in Pharm. Sci. (1998) 19, 177-183); (Phillips et al., Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry (1998) 33, 31-40); (Matsubara et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1992) 224, 145); (Rouleau et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. (1997) 281, 1085); (Adam Szelag, “Role of histamine H3-receptors in the proliferation of neoplastic cells in vitro”, Med. Sci. Monit., 4(5): 747-755, (1998)); (Fitzsimons, C., H. Duran, F. Labombarda, B. Molinari and E. Rivera, “Histamine receptors signalling in epidermal tumor cell lines with H-ras gene alterations”, Inflammation Res., 47 (Suppl. 1): S50-S51, (1998)); (R. Leurs, R. C. Vollinga and H. Timmerman, “The medicinal chemistry and therapeutic potentials of ligand of the histamine H3 receptor”, Progress in Drug Research 45: 170-165, (1995)); (R. Levi and N. C. E. Smith, “Histamine H3-receptors: A new frontier in myocardial ischemia”, J. Pharm. Exp. Ther., 292: 825-830, (2000)); (Hatta, E., K Yasuda and R. Levi, “Activation of histamine H3 receptors inhibits carrier-mediated norepinephrine release in a human model of protracted myocardial ischemia”, J. Pharm. Exp. Ther., 283: 494-500, (1997); (H. Yokoyama and K. Iinuma, “Histamine and Seizures: Implications for the treatment of epilepsy”, CNS Drugs, 5(5); 321-330, (1995)); (K. Hurukami, H. Yokoyama, K. Onodera, K. Iinuma and T. Watanabe, AQ-0 145, “A newly developed histamine H3 antagonist, decreased seizure susceptibility of electrically induced convulsions in mice”, Meth. Find. Exp. Clin. Pharmacol., 17(C): 70-73, (1995); (Delaunois A., Gustin P., Garbarg M., and Ansay M., “Modulation of acetylcholine, capsaicin and substance P effects by histamine H3 receptors in isolated perfused rabbit lungs”, European Journal of Pharmacology 277(2-3):243-50, (1995)); and (Dimitriadou, et al., “Functional relationship between mast cells and C-sensitive nerve fibres evidenced by histamine H3-receptor modulation in rat lung and spleen”, Clinical Science 87(2):151-63, (1994). Such diseases or conditions include cardiovascular disorders such as acute myocardial infarction; memory processes, dementia and cognition disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, epilepsy, and seizures or convulsions; cancer such as cutaneous carcinoma,” medullary thyroid carcinoma and melanoma; respiratory disorders such as asthma; sleep disorders such as narcolepsy; vestibular dysfunction such as Meniere's disease; gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation, migraine, motion sickness, obesity, pain, and septic shock.
H3 receptor antagonists have also been previously described in, for example, WO 03/050099, WO 02/0769252, and WO 02/12224. The histamine H3 receptor (H3R) regulates the release of histamine and other neurotransmitters, including serotonin and acetylcholine. H3R is relatively neuron specific and inhibits the release of certain monoamines such as histamine. Selective antagonism of H3R receptors raises brain histamine levels and inhibits such activities as food consumption while minimizing non-specific peripheral consequences. Antagonists of the receptor increase synthesis and release of cerebral histamine and other monoamines. By this mechanism, they induce a prolonged wakefulness, improved cognitive function, reduction in food intake and normalization of vestibular reflexes. Accordingly, the receptor is an important target for new therapeutics in Alzheimer disease, mood and attention adjustments, including attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), cognitive deficiencies, obesity, dizziness, schizophrenia, epilepsy, sleeping disorders, narcolepsy and motion sickness, and various forms of anxiety.
The majority of histamine H3 receptor antagonists to date resemble histamine in possessing an imidazole ring that may be substituted, as described, for example, in WO96/38142. Non-imidazole neuroactive compounds such as beta histamines (Arrang, Eur. J. Pharm. 1985, 111:72-84) demonstrated some histamine H3 receptor activity but with poor potency. EP 978512 and EP 0982300A2 disclose non-imidazole alkyamines as histamine H3 receptor antagonists. WO 02/12224 (Ortho McNeil Pharmaceuticals) describes non-imidazole bicyclic derivatives as histamine H3 receptor ligands. Other receptor antagonists have been described in WO02/32893 and WO02/06233.
This invention is directed to histamine-3 (H3) receptor antagonists of the invention useful for treating the conditions listed in the preceding paragraphs. The compounds of this invention are highly selective for the H3 receptor (vs. other histamine receptors), and possess remarkable drug disposition properties (pharmacokinetics). In particular, the compounds of this invention selectively distinguish H3R from the other receptor subtypes H1R, H2R. In view of the increased level of interest in histamine H3 receptor agonists, inverse agonists and antagonists in the art, novel compounds that interact with the histamine H3 receptor would be a highly desirable contribution to the art. The present invention provides such a contribution to the art being based on the finding that a novel class of biaryl amines has a high and specific affinity to the histamine H3 receptor.